A lake of overwhelming expanse stretched out before his eyes.
Just how vast it was in relation to Elgin as a whole, even Rei couldn't say for certain.
But one thing was undeniable—it had teleported here without warning, and expecting anyone not to be on guard would have been unreasonable.
What's more, when Rei had surveyed the lake from above, he'd spotted shapes beneath the surface that clearly weren't fish.
The lake's arrival made fishing a possibility, but given what lurked beneath the surface, it was by no means a safe fishery.
"Rei, um… how is it down there?"
One of the adventurers asked, his voice timid, as Rei descended to the ground.
Rei answered him flatly.
"For starters, it's definitely a massive lake. But whether it's safe to just leave as is… that's another question."
"Another question?"
"Yeah. Putting the teleportation itself aside, I'm wondering what's going to happen to the water flow from here on."
Lakes generally had a constant source of fresh water feeding in from somewhere.
But if the entire lake had teleported here, then whatever water source had sustained it in its original world no longer existed. It might be fine for now, but given time, the water could drain away—or worse, stagnate and rot.
Then again, a lake that had teleported from another world might well sustain itself through magic or some other force, even without a river, spring, or groundwater feeding it.
"Ah… the water, huh. Wonder what'll happen with that. After a lake this huge just dropped in, I'd love to put it to use for Gilm long-term, but…"
"Yeah. Though from what I saw up there, it's not just fish in that lake. There were other shapes—monsters, most likely."
"Ugh."
The adventurer scrunched his face in genuine disgust.
If this were on land, Gilm's adventurers would have any number of ways to fight. But the enemy was in the water.
Given the terrain, combat wasn't impossible, but they'd undeniably be at a disadvantage.
If they had magic or a Magic Item that let them move freely underwater, that would be a different story.
Rei, after all, was known for his mastery of Flame Magic and could even conjure a Fire Whirlwind.
Because of that, another adventurer who'd been listening fixed his eyes on Rei with evident hope—wondering whether he could simply evaporate the whole lake.
Rei had no intention of living up to those expectations. Not right now.
Doing so would render the lake completely useless.
This was a lake that had just appeared. Whether it would be fed by a water source and endure as a proper lake for years to come, or whether the lack of inflow would turn the water murky and ruin it—Rei couldn't say for certain yet. But neither was it his call to make alone.
"In any case… Zozo."
"Yes."
Setting aside his conversation with the adventurer, Rei called out to Zozo.
Zozo had been staring at the teleported lake, just as spellbound as everyone else. But at Rei's voice, he snapped back to himself and drew near.
"What is it?"
"This lake—does it have a name?"
Rei's reasoning was straightforward. Every teleportation so far had originated from Zozo's world, and the Birth Tower itself had come from the Gran Dragonia Empire. A lake this size, if it existed within their borders, they would surely know about it.
"I apologize, but I do not know of any such lake."
Zozo's answer was brief but certain.
"Huh?"
A small sound slipped from Rei. He hadn't expected that.
Even so, he didn't suspect a lie. Zozo hadn't been following him for many days, but Rei already knew the depth of his loyalty. If Rei told him to die, Zozo would do it without question—an extent of devotion that was, frankly, staggering.
Rei couldn't help but wonder sometimes why it ran so deep.
"Right… would you mind asking Gaga, then?"
"Of course. One moment."
Zozo approached Gaga, who was wearing the same overwhelmed stare he himself had just shaken off, and spoke to him.
Gaga seemed to jolt back to awareness at Zozo's call. Blinking in surprise, he gave brief answers to each question.
"Brother Gaga also does not know of any such lake. There are several lakes in the Gran Dragonia Empire, but all are smaller than this one."
Gaga was sharp—sharper than his appearance suggested. And as befitting the Third Prince, he possessed a wealth of knowledge. In that regard, he was leagues above Zozo, who held an extremely low Right of Succession to the Throne.
Given who Gaga was, it struck Rei as odd that he wouldn't know about a lake of this scale within his own country. He turned his gaze back toward the water.
"Yeah… it's a lake, all right. Though there's something weird in it."
At the edge of Rei's vision, a long tail was visible breaching the surface.
It was far off, so he couldn't judge its exact length, but it looked to be around five meters.
At first, he'd taken it for a fish's tail. But as far as Rei knew, fish tails didn't grow hair. And more to the point, hair that had just emerged from the water shouldn't be dry and lying flat—it should be plastered down and dripping. This wasn't.
"What the hell is that…?"
An adventurer standing nearby stared at the same thing, equally dumbfounded.
Whatever it was, it was nothing the man had ever encountered, despite his fair share of adventurer experience.
"So it's confirmed—neither Zozo nor Gaga knows anything about this lake?"
"Correct. It is possible that a lake such as this exists in a nation other than the Gran Dragonia Empire, but…"
Zozo looked genuinely downcast at being unable to help. Rei shook his head, signaling him not to worry.
"If it existed in the Empire and you didn't know about it, that'd be one thing. But if it doesn't exist there at all, there's no reason you should."
Even so, Rei's eyes drifted back to the lake.
The tail had already slipped beneath the surface. Now there was nothing but ripples.
If Zozo and Gaga both don't know this lake, I can think of three possibilities.
He ran through them in his mind.
One: it teleported from Zozo's world, but from a nation other than the Gran Dragonia Empire.
Two: it wasn't from Zozo's world at all, but from somewhere in this one—Elgin.
Three: it came from neither Elgin nor Zozo's world, but from an entirely separate third world.
Rei desperately hoped the third option wasn't the case.
He was already struggling to deal with teleportations from Zozo's world. If a third world started sending things through on top of that… the situation would be beyond dire.
"Hey, Rei. Mind if I head back to Gilm and report this?"
The one who spoke up was the bovine beastman.
The horses had been frozen in terror since Set's warning cry, but enough time had passed for them to move again, albeit still visibly skittish.
If they could just put some distance between themselves and Set, they'd likely bolt at full gallop.
"Go ahead. Nothing else is going to happen now. Fair warning, though—I doubt they'll believe you right away."
"What should I do, then?"
The bovine beastman couldn't argue with that.
If it were a smaller lake, the prior teleportation of the Birth Tower might have been enough context to win people over. But what spread before them now was enormous. If someone walked into Gilm claiming a lake this size had just appeared out of nowhere, would anyone take it at face value? The answer was no.
"In that case, just tell them Rei's involved. They'll accept it with 'It's Rei, after all.'"
The adventurer man who'd been listening chimed in.
Rei found the logic less than airtight, but for reasons beyond him, the others nodded along.
Then again, considering the sheer number of incidents Rei had been tangled up in, accepting something with "It's Rei" was perhaps only natural.
"Do what you want. If they absolutely refuse to believe it, they can come see for themselves—or you can go back."
Setting aside being used as a trump card, Rei turned to the knight.
A report from a knight under Daskar's direct command would at least be taken seriously.
But after a long moment of deliberation, the knight shook his head.
"I know I should, but if something else happens after I leave, that'd be a serious problem."
"Can't argue with that."
Even Rei, who had weathered one impossible event after another, found a lake materializing out of thin air genuinely unexpected. If something else teleported in next, he'd be shocked—but he'd also accept it. And if the knight wasn't here when that happened, it would be a blot on his record, and by extension, on Daskar's.
That was why the knight reluctantly turned him down.
If there had been two knights on site, it wouldn't have been an issue.
As if on cue, another knight emerged from the Treant Forest.
Rei didn't recognize him at first, but on second glance, it was the knight who'd been working alongside the woodcutters and adventurers in the forest.
The man stepped out from the trees, caught sight of the lake sitting right beside the Birth Tower, and stopped dead.
No wonder. He might have known about the Birth Tower, but a lake materializing next to it? That wasn't on anyone's bingo card.
"Sorry—wait here a moment."
The Birth Tower knight said it curtly and strode toward his counterpart.
No one present objected.
They'd all witnessed the lake appear with their own eyes, so while they were shaken, they could accept it. But for someone arriving with no context, a body of water had simply appeared from nowhere.
Telling him not to gawk would have been absurd.
Once the situation was briefly explained, the newcomer collected himself—credit to the composure expected of a knight in the frontier region of Gilm.
Rei pretended not to catch the faint, whispered words "because it's Rei."
The Birth Tower knight returned, the Treant Forest knight in tow, now considerably calmer.
"I'll leave things here to him and ride back to Gilm with a report. If a knight delivers the news, they might actually believe a lake teleported in."
"That'd be a huge help."
The bovine adventurer man's relief was genuine. He understood full well that a knight's word carried far more weight than his own—and that he wasn't particularly gifted at explaining things in the first place.
The Treant Forest knight wasn't about to abandon the situation, either. An agreement was reached in short order.
After watching the knight's carriage roll away, Rei turned back to the one who'd stayed behind—the knight from the Treant Forest.
"Glad you're sticking around, but is the forest going to be all right? That shockwave reached all the way over there, didn't it?"
"It did. But nothing actually happened on our end, so there's nothing to worry about. Still, someone should explain why I'm staying here. Would anyone be willing to go? I can't leave this spot."
At the knight's words, one of the adventurers immediately set off toward the Treant Forest.